Punta Tombo & Gaiman - and the road south

Still on a high from our day on Monday, despite being exhausted we decided to go for another long day trip early on Tuesday. Tours are the way to go in this area as public transport isn't always available This time we were heading to the penguin colony at Punta Tombo, and then on to the biggest Welsh town on the area, Gaiman.

Oh, and we also got to see some dolphins along the way! We had another hour on a boat and were able to see them (a type locally called tonino) jumping around us. Although this didn't have the same wow factor as the whales, probably because they move much quicker so you don't get the same feeling of closeness to them, it was still an amazing sight. As a bonus we also saw some seals swimming past us. We ended up with lots of photos of splashes, but also some pretty decent ones as you can see.




We then headed further south to see the Magellenic penguins, which are about half a metre tall. Punta Tombo is a breeding ground for half a million of them, and the largest colony outside Antartica. Again we were able to get very close to them, and in some cases able to get a glimpse of their eggs which they were carefully guarding. The males and females take it in turns to look after the eggs (usually 2 but only 1 will hatch) whilst the other goes out to sea for food. We therefore saw some especially fat penguins waddling back! They are fascinating little things, and I could have watched them playing around in the ocean and on the beach all day. It is incredible to see so many of them in one place, and the setting itself is also stunning. I´m very tempted to go back in a few weeks to see their newly hatched chicks...





After another rough ride in the minibus (roads were pretty rocky) we reached Gaiman, which was a totally strange experience. We left behind the acres of scrubland typical of the area, and suddenly found ourselves in a lush green valley! The Welsh settlers introduced new plants and crops to the area, and the town remains very different because of this. Interesting combinations of Welsh and Spanish names appear all over the place, and we also saw the original school building which has a motto in Welsh and Spanish above the door. Apparently this continues to confuse people no end as they don't realise that Welsh and English are just slightly different languages!

Unfortunatey we only had an hour or so in Gaiman, but luckily that was plenty of time to have tea in a very quaint "Welsh" teashop with some other English girls from our tour. We did try to explain to our guide Mauriccio (same guy as day before) that we don't generally have afternoon tea back in the UK, but he still seemed convinced that this was still typical of the south of England! Anyway, while in mini Wales it just had to be done and lots of delicious tea and cake later we jumped back on the bus ready to be dropped in the nearby city of Trelew to pick up our long distance bus to Rio Gallegos.




We weren't looking forward to another overnight trip, but it was seemingly the only way to get to where we wanted to be. Also it should be our last overnight bus as we are getting a ferry up through Chile next week (more about that later) and concentrating on a couple of places in Patagonia in the next week or so. We have decided aganst going to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, not only because it is really hard to pronounce (?!) but also because it would involve many more hours on buses. It is also a key departure point for Antartica, so we´ll see the very south when we go there at some unknown point in the future, ie when we win the lottery! We always knew that we wouldn't be able to do everything in the time we have, and wanted to leave ourselves enough time to see some of Chile. It is difficult to appreciate the distances involved until you get here, but there is a danger of travelling everywhere yet seeing nowhere.

Back in Trelew, we weren't pleased to hear that the bus was delayed by over 2 hours, mainly because this would mean that we'd be restricted on connections from Rio Gallegos (by all accounts not worth a stopover) to our ultimate destination El Calafate the following afternoon. Despite our concerns and several stops by the police to check passport details (no idea why!) we eventually arrived at Rio Gallegos at 3.30pm on Wednesday. We were therefore able to get a connection at 6pm arriving in El Calafate at 10pm. In other words we had a 24 hour journey, but as we finally got away from the seemingly endless miles of this:

into stunning countryside we knew that it was worth it.

Here in El Calafate we are staying in one of the nicest hostels so far and enjoying a quiet day strolling round the town, a nice little place which reminds us of a ski resort. It is also pretty cold and windy, so the fleeces etc are being well used again. Luckily it's not raining as yet so fingers crossed on that - anything can happen weather wise here! The biggest draw of the area is the Perito Moreno glacier, 80km away, which is where we're heading tomorrow. We're doing a very highly recommended alternative day trip which involves a hike away from where the usual tourist crowds congregate, viewing of the glacier from the land and then a boat ride to get up close to it. We're also hoping to do some horse riding before we head to Puerto Natales (Chile) and the Torres del Paine area on Sunday. It´s been an amazing week so far and lots more to come...